This was one of many exciting stops on my first ‘food tour of Cornwall’ with the lovely Laura and Kieran (both of whom are involved with Tasting Britain as writers, and both of whom I now count as good friends).
Our trip to Black Rock was pretty flukey, fast but no less great for it. We met Jack Williams, Black Rock’s founder and head honcho, simply because he turned out to be the boyfriend of a PR I got coffee with one afternoon in Falmouth. Jack is a great guy – my kinda guy. Not only does he share my name (always a plus), but he also has a healthy/unhealthy interest in army surplus clothing and the production of alcoholic substances. Black Rock are the first brewery in Falmouth I think for a hundred odd years, and focus on a core range of 4 beers: Black Rock Pale (4.2% ABV) pale gold in colour, Black Rock Deep (5.0% ABV) rich gold in colour, Endless IPA (3.8% ABV) pale straw in colour, Black IPA (6.0% ABV) midnight black in colour.
Established in 2012 – Jack’s stated goal is to goal is ‘to really put Falmouth on the map beer-wise’. He describes Black Rock’s style as aspiring to ‘dependable; do anything, go anywhere beer’. On top of this, he’s a pretty talented: asides from pretty much launching and pushing this thing to where it is on his own, he also built the website by himself (it’s a pretty pimp site) and I THINK programmed a Raspberry Pi based controller for fermentation. And that’s some real shit.
As for the brewery’s ‘USP’? I’ll quote the man himself: “At Black Rock we differentiate ourselves with our location – Falmouth’s a heck of a town, did I mention? And with our attitude – the beer and brand really is an extension of our lifestyle, and it encapsulates the joy and camaraderie of living and working on the Cornish peninsular.” In line with this, Black Rock’s motto is ‘Tight lines, good times.’ (’tight lines’ being a nautical reference, I think). We hope to be seeing much more of the Black Rock, all over the UK 😀